December 3, 2013

Hi everyone!

Life in Colombia is as exciting as usual. I have been getting a little sick, I have been congested the last week and am now losing my voice haha. It is a new experience for me (I don´t recall ever losing my voice before), so it is pretty exciting. I can still talk though, so I am still learning spanish!

Last Saturday Elder B and I went proselyting! It was kinda tough haha, not a lot of people like to stop and chat. But we did have good discussions with a few people, and got out missionary contact information to a couple interested investigators! And I haven´t even left the MTC yet! (Take that you Provo-trained missionaries ;) )

So today was pretty eventful, I was able to go to the Bogota temple again (which is really cool), and then after that, we changed into jeans and t-shirts and went on a road trip! After like an hour of driving through the crazy traffic of Colombia, we went to this place called Catedral Sal or something like that. It is a Cathedral built into a salt mine in the side of a mountain! It is the coolest place, with intricate, masterfully-carved features, like walkways, angel statues, and a lot of Crosses. It was a lot of fun! However you won´t believe this: It cost 23,000 pesos to get in! (Roughly 13 dollars haha) I´ll attach some pics.

So after I got back, the day just got better: We had Subway sandwiches for dinner! Although I don´t hate the food here at the CCM, it does get a little tiresome to eat rice and soup with almost every meal haha. So that was pretty sweet! I haven´t noticed a lot of American fast food places here, but there are several Subways and McDonald´s here.

And I have decided that volleyball is the best sport to play here in the Bogota MTC. We can´t play soccer because I guess people often kick the ball outside the fence that keeps us in the jail-like environment, and there isn´t a lot of room to play football. So volleyball it is. And the net that we have is short, so even though I don´t have a lot of hops, I can still spike and block easily haha.

So tomorrow I should be getting my new Latino companion! I am looking forward to having to spend all of my time with someone that I can´t communicate with haha. Just kidding, Spanish is coming pretty well! I am by no means perfect, or even average, but I can get by.

Well I love you all! Yo se que este evangelio es verdadero, y que Jesucristo nos ama y sufrió por nosotros! Se Amo!

Love,
Elder Toombs

Bogota Temple

The remainder of the picture I'm guessing are from Catedral Sol

Nov. 29, 2013

Hello everyone! I am going to be a little short today because I want to email a lot of people haha. And sorry, but I did sincerely think that I would be able to email yesterday!

Soooo the past week.5 in the CCM (MTC) has been pretty cool! I have a cool district, and there are a lot of new experiences. They have this fruit called a granadina (I think) and it is pretty cool! google it if you want haha.

So we are only allowed to use our cameras on p-day, I guess that there is some theft that happens here (unfortunately). However I haven´t been stolen from yet!

I went to the temple again on Wednesday, and after we got to go to the distribution center. There I was able to trade in some dolares for pesos! It is like 1800 pesos to the dollar, so I feel pretty rich carrying around 36000 in bills haha. And it seems like most prices here are a little lower than in the US, except gas is like over $5 a gallon! It is pretty crazy haha.

Yesterday we had a general authority come in, one of the seventy down here in Colombia I think. He was pretty cool; however, I was pretty much falling asleep the entire time haha. So he would walk up to me and speak long, fast sentences in spanish and we had a translator telling us what he was saying but it wasn´t fast enough and it was just pretty crazy haha. It was fun though!

Aaannndd I was talkng to one of the latinos here (using the few words I know) and then he said something about merchant... then I realized he was saying Elder Merchen! He (Elder Diaz) is from Guatemala, and Elder Merchen actually stayed at his house! (or something like that haha) It was pretty cool!

So next Wednesday marks the end of the 4th week, and here at the Colombain CCM, that means that all of the norte americanos get latino companions! I am pretty excited. Although I hope he at least speaks a little english. And has good hygine. I guess that is a problem here haha.

Well I know that this church is true! I am so glad to be out here, and although it can be tough at times, I know that my stay in the CCM will help me to better let others come unto Christ! My next p-day is Tuesday, so I will talk to you all then!

Love, 

Elder Toombs

Colombia MTC

Colombia MTC

Nathan and Elder Baumgarten